Cuauhtlaxaya (MH491v)

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description:

This black-line drawing of the compound glyph for the personal name Cuauhtlaxaya (here, attested as male) consists of two elements. One is the head of an eagle (cuauhtli)] in profile looking toward the viewer's right. Its visible eye is open, its beak is open, and it has some spiky feathers coming off the top and the back of its head. To the right and adjoining the eagle's head is a human face (xayacatl), also in profile, and also facing toward the right.

Description, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis:

This name may be something like Eagle-Face. Another possibility is that the second part of the name, tlaxaya, is something of a homophone for tlazaya, a conjugation in the imperfect past for tlaza, to hurl, thrown down. This would require a significant change in orthography and pronunciation, however, by switching from "x" to "z." It seems unlikely.

Added Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Gloss Image:

Gloss Diplomatic Transcription:

Juā guauhtlaxaya

Gloss Normalization:

Juan Cuauhtlaxaya

Gloss Analysis, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript:

Huexotzinco, Matrícula de (MH)

Date of Manuscript:

1560

Creator's Location (and place coverage):

Huejotzingo, Puebla

Semantic Categories:

personal name

Cultural Content & Iconography:

Animals, incl. Birds, Bugs, Insects, Reptiles, etc.

Gender (male)

Mouth/Beak Open

Names (personal and/or theonym)

Cultural Content, Credit:

Xitlali Torres

Colors:

black & white drawing (no color)

Shapes and Perspectives:

facing right

profile view

Glyph or Iconographic Image:

Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s):

cuauhtli, eagle, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/cuauhtli.
xayacatl, face, mask, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xayacatl.

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation:

Águila-Cara

Spanish Translation, Credit:

Stephanie Wood

Image Source:

Matrícula de Huexotzinco, folio 491r, World Digital Library, https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_15282/?sp=62&st=image.

Image Source, Rights:

This manuscript is hosted by the Library of Congress and the World Digital Library; used here with the Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SAq 3.0).

Historical Contextualizing Image: